The Doubs combines the Loue valley, the Doubs gorges, forts and citadels, waterfalls and the Haut-Doubs plateau. Besançon, a town fortified by Vauban, is a World Heritage site.
This itinerary spreads the best-rated sites in the catalogue over three days.
The map shows the numbered stops in visiting order, with one colour per day. The line follows the roads where available; otherwise it joins the stops as the crow flies. Distances and times are approximate (by car, without traffic).
This day brings together 3 sites close to each other: caves, natural wonders and waterfalls. Allow half an hour to an hour and a half per site, plus travel time.
Located at Chaux-lès-Passavant, 30 km from Besançon, in the middle of the forest, this open-air cave collects the cold air and water seeping from the vault to form a large reserve of ice, a phenomenon unique in Europe at this altitude of 525 m. A mineral exhibition of more than 5,000 crystals from the...
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Among the great sites of the Doubs, the Cirque de Consolation is probably one of the finest landscapes of the département.
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Ranked the number-one natural site of Franche-Comté. From Villers-le-Lac, commented cruises of 14 km aboard tour boats offer a grandiose spectacle of the meanders of the Doubs, set in wild gorges.
View full page →This day brings together 6 sites close to each other: caves, castles and towns and cities. It passes through Besançon. Allow half an hour to an hour and a half per site, plus travel time.
The Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, near Besançon, is the work of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux.
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Stalagmites, stalactites, columns, pools, rocks and bones of cave bears welcomed us.
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Former capital of French watchmaking, enclosed in an almost complete meander of the Doubs and dominated by the Vauban citadel listed by UNESCO.
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It could contain Notre-Dame cathedral of Paris! Giving access to an immense hall that gives us from the entrance the feeling of entering a sacred place, the Poudrey chasm takes us 70 metres below ground.
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Crossed from one end to the other by the pretty river Loue that gushes out a few kilometres away, the town is a former village of winegrowers and blacksmiths.
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Located at the bottom of a reculée, near the edge-tool works of Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne, it is a fine example, like the Loue of which it is a tributary, of a resurgence typical of karst areas.
View full page →This day brings together 3 sites close to each other: waterfalls and natural wonders. It passes through Mouthier-Haute-Pierre. Allow half an hour to an hour and a half per site, plus travel time.
The water comes from the Baume cliff above Mouthier-Haute-Pierre.
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A double step nestled near Mouthier-Haute-Pierre, in the Loue valley.
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The Malbuisson blue spring is a karst spring or resurgence, a waterfall and a stream of Malbuisson, which flows into Lac de Saint-Point, in the Jura massif.
View full page →Spring, summer and autumn all suit well. Summer is the best season for rivers and gorges. Winter is cold and snowy at altitude.
A car lets you link the scattered sites. Besançon is explored on foot. Some mountain roads may be snowy in winter.
Gushing from a cave 60 m wide and 30 m high carved in an overhanging wall more than 100 m high, the source of the Loue is none other than a majestic resurgence of the Doubs.
The Brême, a tributary of the Loue, has the particularity of partly disappearing into a chasm, called the Puits de la Brême or Black Well.
Our craft: hand-painted fir "Comtoise" clocks, a factory of life-size automata.
An emblematic Renaissance monument in Franche-Comté, the Palais Granvelle was restored between 1988 and 2002 to become the Museum of Time, the history, science and watchmaking museum of Besançon.
This site is in the Val du Saugeais, near Montbenoît.
The Valbois stream rises on the plateau, crosses its edge by a 40 m waterfall, then joins a tributary of the Loue.